Who's going to kill high margin media distribution?

CNET’s report on Napster To Go (NTG) hacking shows us that stream ripping has come of age. The latest NTG news and opinions (read The Register and Russ Beattie’s blog for two conflicting views) plus the recent round of MPAA lawsuits against LokiTorrent and other torrent swapping sites has motivated me to examine the most economical legal way for me to get the music, TV, and movies I want.

I’ve found one crucial truth is missing from most of the pundits’ analyses: Most media sucks.

I don’t give a flying fig about monthly subscription services because most of the thousands of movies, TV shows, and songs out there are crap anyway. Who cares if I can fill my MP3 player with thousands of songs a month for $18 if most of those songs stink? I want what I want, and by the time I boil things down to that, there really aren’t that many songs, shows, or movies left.

Take music, for instance. I’m very happy to listen to good old fashioned broadcast radio, friends, and LaunchCast to find new tunes. When I find a song that isn’t crap, I preview the rest of the CD from Amazon or Wal-Mart. If enough of it’s good I buy the CD from whomever has it cheapest (online, brick and mortar, etc.). If there are just a few good songs, I can pick up each one individually for 88 cents apiece from Wal-Mart.

If Wal-Mart’s smart, they’re already working on similar services for HDTV and movie distribution. Marry that with Amazon’s “search inside” technology a la “search inside the TV program” and “search inside the movie” and you get an idea where I’m heading with this…

In the end, stream ripping won’t kill high margin media distribution. Wal-Mart will.